Majority Influence

The Study : 123 male American undergraduate students were shown a series of lines when seated in small groups. Each group was made up with a majority of confederates all giving an incorrect answer. There was 12 critical trials.

Findings: 36.8% of responses made by true participants were incorrect i.e. conformed. 1/4 of participants never conformed.

Reasons Behind conformity

Distortion of Perception - a small number came to see the lines the same way as the majority

Distortion of Judgement - they felt doubt about the accuracy of their judgement and therefore yielded to the majority view

Distortion of Action - the majority of participants who conformed continued to privately to trust their own judgement but changed their public behaviour, giving inncorrect answers to avoid disapproval

Variations of Asch study

Difficulty of Task: Asch changed the design of the task to make it more difficult (shortened the length difference between lines)

The Size of the Majority : Asch found that there was a pivotal number for a majority - 3. Any less and the participant was hesitant and conformity rates were low and any higher didn't seem to affect the conformity rates any further

Unanimity of Majority: When another dissenter (whether another participant or confederate) conformity rates dropped dramatically to just 5.5%

Ethical Issues

Deception ; participants lead to believe partaking in a sight test. Also lead to believe everyone in the room was a true participant when most were confederates